17 July 2023  Observation Log

Tried to go out last night, but the battery for the red dot finder was dead. FOV (field of view) for the scope was narrow enough that I had difficulty getting aligned. Bought batteries today! Need to pay attention and be sure to turn the finder off when I am done with it. I took the scope out at dusk and aligned the finder with it using a light pole about a mile away. Tests later showed it was accurate enough to easily bring target stars in the FOV of the 27mm reticle eyepiece. 

There is no moon tonight. I did a 2 star alignment using Arcturus and Altair. Tried to use GoTo to locate M103 but the scope was off below and left. I searched manually and was able to find the target. I had changed from the 27mm reticle to the 32 mm eyepiece, for its wider FOV. Once I located the target, I changed to the 25mm, and eventually the 13mm. With the 13mm, quite a few of the stars popped out. I spent quite a bit of time observing with each eyepiece. 



I then tried to realign using Auto 2 Star, but it was pretty far off. Redid using 2 star again and this time it was very accurate. I suspect operator error for the first to attempts being off. Tried for M101 but was unable to locate it. The sky was still pretty bright. I then went to Saturn. It was just a few degrees above the Sapphires and the roof of my wood shop. The image was very unsteady at any magnification, and very bright with no discernible colors.

Comments

  1. AnonymousAugust 10, 2023 at 6:53 PM

    This is super fun to read. Glad to see that you're continuing to dial in your gear. I think gear is sometimes half the fun. Getting it to do what you want. Super good to see that the batteries being dead didn't stop you. That's likely good practice anyways.

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